Any Normal Day
by ThisStrawberryIsYours
Summary: "It was any normal day," Kara relented, twirling the gold ring that brought her here between her fingers. As soon as those words left her mouth, I knew it was going to be bad. Every horrible story starts out on any normal day... O/C


Hello All! This is my first _Batman/Justice League_ inspired work, though not my first _DC_ related piece. I used to have quite a few on this site for anything relating to _Superman_ (they were erased when I had to delete my account a few years ago). Anyway…I hope you don't judge me too harshly. I _will_ be changing some things around and adding a few things so that my story will make sense.

I've always wanted to write this and when I stumbled upon this challenge I decided it was the perfect opportunity:

_1. Pick a character, fandom, pairing, friendship, whatever._

_2. Put iTunes or your music program on shuffle and start playing songs._

_3. For each song, write something inspired by the song related to the theme you chose earlier. No pre-planning, and no skipping songs either._

_4. Do this for ten songs (I will be doing a lot more than 10 songs.)_

**IMPORTANT A/N**: First of all…I will be introducing a new character. I won't give anything away just yet, but everything should be made clear in the first part of this little series. The character is female and will be only part-human. This fic will revolve mainly around her and Bruce, and his influence in her life will have many different roles. I will be skipping time between some songs and will make clear how many years (if any) have gone by.

**I do not own any of the **_**DC**_** related characters, sans my own female one, of course, or the songs used for this challenge. **

Please ignore any and all grammatical/ spelling mistakes you may stumble upon. Enjoy!

* * *

_Give me just one part of you to cling to_

_And keep me everywhere you are_…

* * *

I can see Kara at the corner of my eye, and I notice how Clark refuses to meet her gaze.

People begin to slowly walk away from the two freshly dug graves. No bright primary colors or demanding blacks or shining, sparking weapons. There were no heroes on this day, just friends and family, just civilians coming to pay their final respects to an intrepid reporter and her child.

Kara is still standing next to Clark, awkwardly imploring him to notice her. She was practically begging for some sort of confirmation that he didn't hate her. What she didn't understand was that he didn't hate _her_, he hated himself. Guilt was eating him alive. Soon enough, he'll start to believe all that's left inside of him is decaying along with his dead wife. That sort of self-loathing will consume him. But then he'll start to do something about it. Until then she's going to have to let go herself. There's nothing she can do, not anymore. I slowly slid my arm through hers, telling her with my eyes to give the Man of Steel some time alone for a final goodbye. She understands, and after a moment allows me to escort her to my car.

We're close enough to see Alfred already waiting with the door open when she starts to speak. "I don't want to do this to him, Bruce."

"We don't have a choice."

"I feel like I'm taking the only thing he has left away from him."

"If you stay here or leave Lara behind...you will be."

_Kara came back from the future, knowing, of course, about Lois' pregnancy. She looked a lot older than the age we considered her, like she was thirty-five instead of twenty-five. Then again, I suppose she could very well have been fifty. After all, Clark was thirty-two but looked like he was only a few years younger than myself, barely twenty-four, and I don't even want to think about the complexities of time-travel. Kara Zor-El was still as beautiful as she ever was. Her curly blonde hair was so long that it reached to the arch of her back; her eyes were the same outlandish blue- a blue that couldn't be found on the planet Earth or to any human- that she shares with only other Kryptonians . She was all smiles and gushing and gossiping with the other women about the baby's arrival. But something was wrong. I could tell, and I knew J'onn could as well. _

_It was a week after she arrived when I had caught her doing unauthorized research and decided to question her. I found her and J'onn arguing, their whispers low and frenzied. I could taste whatever bad news the female Kryptonian brought with her souring in my mouth, feel the weight of it pushing me closer to them._

_"Why are you here, Kara?" _

_"Lois is pregnant!" She exclaimed with false excitement. I had surprised both of them and they were on edge. "I had to see my new little cousin. Who knew if I would've ever gotten the chance again?" _

_That was horrible, I thought. She could've done better. "No. Why are you here now? You've been gone years, known about this for awhile, I'm certain of it." She didn't deny it. I was right. "Something changed." _

_Kara looked to J'onn for some sort of help. His red eyes bore into her, trying to get her to see the situation the same way he did with his many years of wisdom. She shook her head, scared for some reason. _

_"It's what you've came here to do. You must do it." J'onn put a large hand on her shoulder. "I know it will be difficult, but you've been here a week already. Fate will not wait for you to gather enough courage to say what needs to be said." _

_The Martian's voice had always been droll and gentle, but he seemed to soften it even more just for this nearly unbreakable woman. I forgot for a moment that he was an empath who could read minds. _

_"It was any normal day," Kara relented, twirling the gold band of the future Justice League ring that brought her here in her fingers. As soon as those words left her mouth, I knew it was going to be bad. Every horrible story starts out on any normal day. My parents died on any normal day. "You were right. I have known about Lara for a few years now."_

_"Lara?" I asked. _

_She nodded. "Yea...it's a girl. Lois told me she wanted it to be a surprise, but of course I already knew. I...it's still difficult for me to believe it. I was so happy for them when I found out." Kara suddenly sounded confused. "How I found out was so simple. I mean, the legends of the great El family are everywhere in the future. She's going to do so many incredible things." Her voice had dropped to a whisper and she let her eyes wander. She had me convinced everything around us was going to disappear fidgeting the way she was. _

_"Anyway," she said, "it was on any normal day. Nothing seemed out of place, there were no clues that suggested there was a major change that had happened. I lived that day just like I would've any other. Then I went to sleep. Dr. Fate told me in a dream that something was about to happen to my family, something that would reshape history as I had come to know it. I woke up, not understanding. I went back to sleep. The next day I saw what Dr. Fate meant."_

_She stopped talking. It sounded like she was telling a ghost story, the way her voice lowered and wavered as she continued. _

_Kara was so far away when she began speaking again. "There's a statue dedicated to the El's, right in front of the Hall of New Justice. I had walked by it the day before and didn't notice it." _

_She stopped again, and when she didn't continue I urged her to."Notice what?" _

_J'onn answered for her. "She wasn't there." _

_"She?" I knew who he meant, and I hated asking so many questions, but Kara was being so vague. _

_"Lara wasn't a part of the statue. Neither was her child... It was just Kal-El. It was sudden clarity, like I knew exactly what went wrong. I could feel myself tearing apart knowing this large piece of history was missing. I looked everywhere, searched every database, and asked every power-wielding being I could think of to explain what had happened." She shook her head. "They wouldn't explain." _

_"Wouldn't?" _

_"Couldn't," she clarified. "They had never heard of a Lara Kal-El or Superwoman."_

_"They were hiding something." I stated, not wanting to ask another question. _

_"No. They weren't." Kara began to quiver with frustration. "It was like she was erased. All of the stories that I ever heard about her were gone or changed to fit someone else's name."_

_"Lara was never born." _

_"She was." _

_"Then how..."_

_"Someone kills her." _

_I remained stoic as I openly considered the situation. "That wouldn't explain why you couldn't find any record of her existing." _

_"I couldn't find any record of what I knew about her because she doesn't live long enough to do them. I finally asked Brainiac 5 and he searched through every known file he had. He worked for days and finally found something. As it turned out, there was a small piece of history. Just one article of a newspaper telling of how Lois Lane-Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet, and daughter, were killed. There's...there's nothing after that."_

_"When was this supposed to have happened?" _

_She looked right into my eyes for the first time since she arrived back. "July 20th." _

_"Tell us what else you know. There has to be more."_

_"There isn't much to tell, that's why this is so difficult. The little I do know is the little that Dr. Fate knew." _

_"Anything at all helps," J'onn insisted._

_"The only thing he knew was that fate had been set off course by Lara's death. If you only knew how important she is...The difference her life makes." Kara crossed her arms and walked to stand by the window. Her eyes took in every star in range, but I could tell she wasn't really seeing anything. "As soon as I realized that she was gone from history, life in the future changed. It's hard to explain it all. It's just too complicated, years and years of choices and outcomes changed and I didn't even see it at first. warned me that much more would change while I was here. Horrible things." A flash of blonde and she was standing in front of me."Someone went through a lot of trouble and centuries of planning to make sure this was never found out. They even took magic into consideration. We don't know who's planning all of this. But we have to stop them." _

"_You're telling me that we have less than two months to figure out who's been plotting a death for the last millennia without any clues, any help, any magic, any name or face that could be able to assist us?" I couldn't help the anger I felt. We didn't have any kind of lead, just a date. I'm supposedly the World's Greatest Detective, but this guy, whoever he is, is a thousand years worth of steps ahead of me. Maybe more. "This is insane." _

_There was a crashing sound before shards of computer screen landed at my feet. _

_I turned to find Superman with his fist still hidden in wires and metal. "You said July 20th?" When we didn't say anything he turned to us. "We'll stop them."_

But we didn't stop them. Not really.

From that time on we had at least one member of the League with Lois at all times. When Lara was born on June 18th, we doubled the number of people to guard both of them. Nothing had happened from the time Kara told us everything she knew, nothing at all. And we knew just as much. Nothing.

It was another one of those normal days when it happened. Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, and Flash were with Lois and the baby. There was a flash of light and then a pulse, the strength and effects of a bomb. But there was no bomb. There was no plane. There was no person. Lois was dead instantly. Lara lived, barely, and only for the fact that she was half-Kryptonian and Flash was carrying her at the time. Wally's reflexes allowed him to sense the pulses in the air before the others by a microsecond, and he got Lara out of there in time to save her. He was as fast as it took to get the baby out of the way just enough so that she wouldn't be killed, but that was all he could do. The Dr. Fate of our time and Zatanna could sense the work of magic, a lot of different, otherworldly, powerful magic. The trail was gone before they could pinpoint anything, like signals that bounced off dozens of proxy servers. But it was something, and it gave us a near dozen suspects. We knew, without a doubt, that it was one of those dozen.

Until then there was only one thing we could do.

We faked Lara's death.

Then we decided to take a step further by sending her to the future with Kara.

Dr. Fate read the girl, and then read her again and then again: Lara would live if she went with her cousin. There was no doubt, he had said, fate had spoken.

"I just can't help thinking that this is wrong somehow," Kara said, bringing me out of the past couple of months to focus on the here and now. "She should be here, living the life I know she's supposed to have! How is she supposed to fulfill her destiny if she's trapped in the wrong time?" She was crying, tiny rivers of black running down her face from what little bit of mascara was left clinging to her eyelashes.

"You're only saying that because you feel guilty. You need to stop. What's happened had happened. You've done your part in this time by keeping Lara alive, but you're not finished yet and you know that." I settled back against the leather seats, watching the city scenery change into a more suburban one. We've been driving for hours with little said between us, but as we neared the manor Kara's nerves and fears were starting to get the best of her. She knew what was coming next. Clark was probably already waiting for us in the Batcave. We left Lara there with Diana, knowing that we couldn't very well have the child present at her own funeral.

"I don't know that, Bruce. I don't know anything anymore."

"This is the right thing, Kara. That's something you _do _know."

Alfred came to a slow stop as we reached the manor, stopping whatever Kara may or may not have wanted to say. I lead her down the stairs, letting the dank and dark atmosphere of the cave calm me as we approached Diana and Clark. I was right, he was there.

Lara was understandably uncomfortable.

She was small, too small in his steel arms. She squirmed and cried, restless since the moment her mother died. Clark wasn't doing much better. He held his daughter as tightly as he could without crushing her. Strange how it wasn't pitiful at all to witness the Strongest Man Alive lean so heavily on a small baby to keep himself standing. It wasn't one of those moments that required strength from him, but required him to depend on the strength of others. I knew what he was thinking. I even understood what he was going through. But I would be a liar if I claimed to know how he felt just now.

"Bruce. Kara." Diana rose from where she had been sitting in my chair. She knew what time it was, and judging from the way Kara kept as close to me as possible and how Clark refused to acknowledge anything besides Lara, I knew they understood what time is was as well. The Princess took in the scene around her for a moment more before directing her attention towards me. "Maybe we should…give them some time to-"

"Don't." It was a broken whisper. "Please…just…please." Clark still wasn't looking at us, so we looked at each other. Diana and I both heard the plea behind the incomplete phrase. He was already accepting his loss, and he knew that when Kara and Lara were gone then he would be left just standing here, alone. We weren't going to do that to him.

"Clark…Kal-El," I amended. "She will return to you. Her destiny is here."

The larger man said nothing in response, not that I expected him to. He knew I was speaking the truth, but knowing and feeling are two very different things, and right now, I knew he felt like this is the last decision he'll ever make in his long life. He felt like letting go of Lara was like letting go of himself. In a way, I suppose he was. But there was hope for him. The only person he had actually lost was Lois. It will take awhile and he may never love in that way again, but he will move on. Kara will never return from the future, it would be too dangerous for someone to play with time that way, but he has the security of knowing she's alive. Lara will return…he will miss perhaps years of her life, but she still has a life, and that knowledge is the only thing that's keeping him sane at the moment.

The two Kryptonians stared at each other in a sort of sad fascination, soaking in every detail of the other with the crushing knowledge that there wouldn't be another opportunity to do so. When they embraced, I looked away. The flowing sound of their dead planet's language reached to where Diana and I were standing, and I was glad they weren't speaking any language that I knew. Those words, whatever they were, belonged to them alone.

Bats flew around us in a hurried panic when a sudden blinding light filled the cave. It brightened every single nook and space, and I felt a sort of mild wonder at seeing it all for the first and probably last time. The light was gone just as soon as it appeared, taking Kara and Lara with it. The echo of their departure rang throughout the cave and throbbed in my head.

It was just the three of us left standing in the darkness.

* * *

_Oh, please don't go_

_Let me have you just one moment more…._

_~Mindy Smith, One Moment More_

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* * *

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_A/N: Yes, I did change some things around, like I said I would. And yes, there probably were many mistakes, all of which I apologize for. Hopefully, you liked it anyway =] I hope it wasn't too confusing, but you're free to ask any question you'd like! _

_A few things…._

_1: I used the Justice Ring from the "Smallville" version. I just really enjoyed it!_

_2: Clark is older than Bruce by a few years in this. Clark being 32, and Bruce being 28. ( I know, I know! He's too young and blahblahblah, but it fits for my story, so….yeah). Just go with it, lol. _

_Review and tell me what you think! _


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